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Saturday, October 29, 2011

Horse Dumping

This is just rumor for now. I tried to find a news story or something to back up what I have been hearing. But nothing. However this isn't surprising as local news does lag behind the country chatter.

With hay prices now topping $110 for a large round bale, and the quality of the hay being so poor, it seems that a few horse owners have decided to take their horses out deeper into the country and dump them like an unwanted dog.

Rumor has it that a local man that cares for a handful of horse, woke to find 4 extra ones in his pasture. Someone had driven up to his field gate and let their horse out onto his pastures.

Last night a woman showed up at my house to inform me that someone had dropped (shot) a horse along side a road. Non residential. She watched as the dog food people picked it up.

It's sad state. With hay growers shipping their bales to Texas because the prices are higher, we here are struggling to find anything. The bales we bought are so light that it only lasted 2 weeks. We have another 2 weeks worth, but after that I don't know. We might end up butchering everything but the calves.

12 comments:

I don't doubt it... I read Craigs list almost daily and see horses on there everyday. The prices will start out reasonable and the next week you will see the same horse ad and they will be offered for free. With winter coming on I expect it to get worse. There will be no pasture to graze on and hay is high when you can get it. I am glad to have found 100 bales at a reasonable price 2 months ago. That will hopefully see my goats through winter. If not we will butcher more than we expected.

The same thing is happening here....we HAD some ok haying, but all of it went to TX, while we struggle HERE to get the hay that was cut HERE! My hay guy even sold the fifteen large round bales we had agreed upon to TX. When I finally called him and asked him where our hay was, he said, "Oh, it wasn't great hay so I figured you wouldn't want it". BS - he just wanted to make a quick buck, and screwed us in the meantime.

Hope you can come up with some hay soon! We've had to pay outrageous prices for smaller / lighter bales here alsol.

wow, I don't know what to say to this. I'm shocked, and I'm not at the same time. I'm really kind of speechless. Sorry you will have to butcher more. If it helps any, I can talk to a few people around here about paying full price for some beef. I would love to send some hay, but we have a shortage here too.

Warning to folks going to any auctions. DO NOT leave your trailers unattended. You stand a great chance of finding new livestock loaded and waiting, that you didn't buy. It's been happening here, as well. The economy is playing into it more than the weather, here. It simply amazes me - how stupid and cruel people become when the chips fall.

That is so sad! I hate to hear about things like this. I guess the one who shot his horse thought that was kinder than letting it starve. It's really a shame about the ones taken out to the woods and abandoned to die, a real heartbreaker.

The horse dumping problem has been going on for a while ...ever since the horse market tanked a few years ago. You just hear about it more in the winter when more feed is required and people run out of money. The problem has been compounded this year with the extended drought and subsequent hay shortage.

We moved here five years ago and had aspirations to build a barn for the horses. They have run in shelter, just no covered stalls. But now I'm thinking if I suddenly had the money to build a barn, I'd build a HAY barn ..so I could stock up in the spring and not have to worry if I can find hay in the winter.

Indeed horse dumping has been going on for years. I remember hearing about (I think Kentucky) where someone had hit a horse in a car, and that they were becoming as troublesome as deer. But dumping is new to our area.

Yup, I wish more people would shoot their horses rather than burdening others, setting them loose, or sending them to the misery of auction/Mexico. Plus, there's too many backyard breeders of horses, unfortunately.

Theres buyers all over southern Illinois, snapping up straw and hay as quick as they can to ship it to texas where they can make huge profits. I refuse to sell the small amount of both I have for sale at more than 50 bales at a time to make sure what I have actually stays here where it's needed too. Phelan, I wish we were closer, I'd happily share what I have with you.

Horse dumping HAS been going on here in Ky. It all begain when it became against the law to sell horses for slaughter. Now people just let the horses go and the horses die of starvation or get hit on the road. It is a bad situation all around. Some people are taking the horses to Canada where it IS legal.

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About Me

I am a death metal homesteader. Or so I jokingly refer to myself.
I have been cooking since I could reach the stove, homesteading on 5 acres in Kansas for 11 years and on the back of a bike for the last 15 years.
Recently we left the Great Plains to start a new life in the Appalachian foothills. Living completely off grid.
I freelance write for a variety of ezines and paper rags. The topics I like to cover are rather eclectic, as is my life.